Owner's devotion brings lumber-era home back to life

She had a vision of what the house had been and what it could be.

She had a vision of what the house had been and what it could be.

February 06, 2006|DAVE LeMIEUX The Muskegon Chronicle

MUSKEGON, Mich. (AP) -- At first, Millie Ortiz didn't realize she'd fallen in love. But before she knew it, the dark green house with stone lions protecting the wide stone steps leading to a broad front porch had become a part of her. Her relationship with the lumber-era house began in 2002 when she purchased it for $16,000. Built in the early 1890s following a disastrous fire that destroyed a large section of downtown Muskegon, the house was scheduled for demolition when Ortiz first saw it sitting neglected. It would take three tries before Ortiz succeeded in having the house moved from its original site to its current location in the city's historic district. And it was a project that would consume three years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. A computer consultant who has always called Muskegon home, Ortiz had stumbled into the business of rehabbing and reselling old houses. Over the last 2 1/2 years, her company, Lakeshore Renewals LLC, has completed more than 30 projects in the Muskegon area. The house she and her husband, Rod Richardson, now call home began as her third venture. Civic pride played a role in Ortiz's decision to buy the 115-year-old house, but it was a project that quickly turned into a passion. The original oak staircase, and much of the wood trim, had somehow remained unpainted for more than a century, Ortiz said. Many of the house's original leaded glass windows were still in place. "You could see what it could be. I could not believe they were going to tear it down, so I bought it not knowing what I was going to do with it," Ortiz said. Ortiz had to force the lock on the front door to get her first look inside. When she saw the interior, Ortiz was filled with wonder and misgiving. Age and hard times had not been kind to the once-elegant structure. A wannabe artist had painted trees and birds on some of the interior walls and windows, Ortiz said. "In the upstairs bedroom, there was this zebra-striped piece of linoleum on the floor and mirrors on the walls." Standing in the foyer, looking at the grand staircase, Ortiz heard the whisper of silk in the wind whistling through the broken windows. In her mind's eye, Ortiz saw the house in its heyday. "Looking at the staircase, I could just see this lady in this grand dress walking down this staircase. It took my breath away," Ortiz said. But Ortiz's vision of the elegance hidden beneath the grime and rot quickly faded, and her doubts and apprehensions came flooding back. Ortiz's mother, Thelma Miel, cried when Ortiz showed her around the house. Ortiz said her mother told her, "I don't know why you bought this. I don't know what you're going to do with it." "I was explaining the different rooms and how they were used, and suddenly I felt that this was my chance to bring something back that was gone," Ortiz said. "This house is going to stand for another 100 years because of what I did. The house is like it's alive. It has character." Ortiz's affection for the house grew as full-scale restoration work got under way. It became increasingly clear that considerable care had gone into even the smallest details of the house's construction. Removal of the house's crumbling original plaster revealed lath work that was a work of art. "There was a pattern to it. It looked just like brick on the wall. The quality of the job that they did, for something that wasn't going to be seen ...." Ortiz marveled, her voice trailing off in wonder. Although it meant considerable extra effort and cost, Ortiz left the house's original wood trim in place when new drywall was installed. Working with carpenters Mike Grasmeyer and Jarrod Starnes, who did all the detail work, Ortiz had original materials used in the restoration whenever possible. Wood from the kitchen floor turns up in a number of places, including the floors of the master bedroom and rear sitting room. The restoration breathed new life into the house. A sturdy new foundation set square walls that had sagged beneath the weight of more than a century's hard use. With just a few discreet modifications to the floor plan, Ortiz preserved the elegance of the house's formal rooms while incorporating more airy, modern spaces. The house's sweeping kitchen is a good example. Packed with modern appliances -- almost all disguised with custom cabinet work -- the kitchen combines modern-day efficiency with period appearance without sacrificing the warmth of a lived-in home. The kitchen opens into a window-filled rear sitting room, amply furnished with comfortable leather couches and chairs. The kitchen and sitting room provide a natural place for family and friends to congregate when Ortiz entertains. "Everyone wants to stand in the kitchen," says Ortiz. The foyer and grand staircase, front sitting room, library and main dining room all appear much as they would have to any lumber-era luminaries who might have called. The master bedroom, a bedroom for Ortiz's four granddaughters and a guest room occupy the second floor. Ortiz converted the house's spacious attic into a multimedia room. The master bath demonstrates Ortiz's ability to take an apparent construction roadblock and transform an ordinary feature into a unique attribute. Ortiz didn't panic when ductwork threw a monkey wrench into plans for a wall-mounted faucet on the bathroom's spa-tub. The solution? Put the faucet in the ceiling. "It turned out just great. It's another example of going with the flow," Ortiz said, no pun intended. "Each room has something that was a mistake that turned out so much better -- that gives the house so much character. Every place that that happened, I wound up loving it so much more than the original." No place more so than on two of the house's most distinctive exterior features -- the wraparound porch and the lions flanking the front steps. Ortiz originally envisioned a different design for the porch and much larger lions. "They came up with the idea of custom-making our own columns," Ortiz said. Stone mason Terry Clarke suggested building up some four-by-fours and wrapping the tops of the columns with wood. "When the porch was done, I started looking around for some (lions), but you can't buy the big ones up here, so I decided to put the baby ones on to see how they looked," Ortiz said.